A vehicle information and communication system (VICS) is employed with the object of reducing economic losses and traffic accidents due to chronic traffic congestion. This vehicle information and communication system uses a light beacon or radio beacon type of radio communication system or wide-area FM multiplex broadcasting, and provides vehicle drivers with various kinds of information such as parking area information, congestion information, radio and weather forecasts, and so forth.
In a conventional vehicle information and communication system, a traffic information service center collects vehicle information such as vehicle congestion information and traffic accident information on an area-by-area basis, artificially creates these vehicle information items as electronic information, and transmits this to relevant vehicle information and communication apparatuses. Each vehicle information and communication apparatus receives and stores vehicle information from the traffic information service center, and when there is a vehicle information acquisition request from a mobile communication terminal apparatus, transmits vehicle information to the relevant mobile communication terminal apparatus.
Therefore, in a conventional vehicle information and communication system, it is necessary to collect vehicle information over a wide range of areas, making real-time information provision difficult. Furthermore, construction circumstances differ from area to area for a vehicle information and communication system that provides general road traffic information, and it may happen that vehicle information cannot be obtained even once before reaching one's destination.
Thus, the system described in Patent Document 1 has been proposed as a vehicle information and communication system. This vehicle information and communication system is equipped with: a detection section that detects the running environment of a vehicle; a communication section that performs transmission and reception of radio signals to/from outside; a control section that determines the distinctive running environment of a vehicle based on a signal from the detection section and, having accumulated information concerning that distinctive running environment, issues that information as a radio signal at predetermined timing via the communication section, and also receives information concerning the distinctive running environment as the radio signal via the communication section; and a reporting section that reports information concerning the distinctive running environment of another vehicle received by the control section to a vehicle occupant.
By this means, it is possible for mobile communication terminal apparatuses of mutually oncoming vehicles to mutually share and report information concerning a distinctive running environment experienced immediately before.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-175592